Please will you help me to understand the real reasons why only 13% of businesses are environmentally certified when 90% of consumers say they prefer to buy environmentlally certified goods and services and over 60% say they will pay extra.

On the face of this it does not make sense so there have to be good reasons and I would really appreciate feedback by either email or SMS

I guess the certification doesn't appear to solve any of your most immediate business problems but I would love to understand this better if you are open to telling me.

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Hi${first_name}

If you are open to helping me understand this I really would appreciate it. I can make guesses but I would love you to email jean@enviroaction.com.au or SMS 0416 905 109 your reasons. There are absolutely no strings attached to sending me a quick note and I certainly won’t keep records of who told me what.  I am simply asking for your help please

Read more here about the findings of the most recent survey of both consumers and businesses....

Why would anyone plan to fail?

Three things are certain in life, death taxes and CHANGE.  If you are a business owner or manager you need to ask “what am I doing to plan for ongoing change?”  Change will happen.  The world economy is not out of the woods yet, all our energy costs are going up and will go up more, the climate is changing, businesses are going broke because they are either drought stricken or flooded out (bizzare mix) - change is happening.  It's not all bad - some of changes are good - improved communication comes to my mind. 

Most changes can be harmful however and if you can’t cure a disease (or a change) you need to manage the symptoms and not just sit back and wait to be a victim.

Bangladesh and Holland are an example of two approaches to the same problem of living in a low lying country, effectively an estuary.  Bangladesh needs to choose: become like Holland or else become a victim.  OK they need serious financial help but they will need this either way.

Failure to plan is planning to fail.  And that applies on a small as well as a big scale.

So how can you plan to make your business more adaptable so that you do not become a victim if circumstances change?  You need to think seriously about diversifying so that all your eggs are not in one basket and susceptible to being dropped and broken.  My favourite marketing coach, Pete Godfrey, always says “one is an evil number”.  So where can you find two and three for your business and have you started thinking about this?  This is the path to being a sustainable business.

What I help my clients do is to identify all your activities so that you can discover where you have problems or the potential for problems and how significant those risks are.  Then I help you build a simple and effective system to manage your risks so that you do not need to cope with the problems and you also include feedback, continual review and improvement.  You will take around four to six months.  It is NOT expensive, it actually SAVES more money than it costs and does not add to your overheads.  It also saves you time once you have implemented your system.  Kept simple like this, you do NOT need an extra person to help you run your system.

If you are one of the many people who haven't fully realised the benefits a simple and effective management system gives you, it is not your fault as I have not explained it well enough and you may have seen examples of poorly developed systems. 

For example, could you imagine:

• a business where your staff really understand and care that the customer is the one who pays their wages and keeps them in a job so that they concentrate on giving really good service
• knowing that all your jobs will be delivered on time and on budget
• your people actively prevent waste - time, rework and materials - waste of your money
• being able to reduce your overheads so that your margin gets bigger
• the peace associated with knowing staff and contractors don't keep making errors
• the security of being safe from the consequences possible from those errors
• having a trusting relationship with EPA and work place safety personnel

If some of these benefits sound attractive, why waste any longer without a sensible management system?

Whether you choose to be certified and which system you choose doesn't really matter. The big thing is having a good system and I do mean a system, not simply a plan because you need the system to keep the plan working. 

I suggest you choose which ever system gives you either the best risk management or marketing advantage.

You can do safety, environment (and include carbon reduction to save money on your energy) and quality which is mainly about satisfying customers – those vital people who pay your bills.

Businesses in my groups are often doing a mixture of systems because apart from the initial choice of problems to manage, all the systems are essentially the same and I encourage you to include the other risks because that helps your business be more adaptable.

Because you understand your own system with my form of training and mentoring, it is very easy to add additional activities so that your system grows with you and makes your business very adaptable to change.

Very importantly you will discover how to keep your system really simple and low paper so that you do NOT need an extra person to help you run it.  The system actually saves you time.

Reserve your place now to start building real sustainability/adaptability into your business.

Or you can Do-It-Yourself  with a self paced home study version that is the same training materials except that it does not include the weekly teleconferences.

My kindest regards,

Jean

Articles

Face facts and adapt to warmer world

At this stage of global discussions and Australian politics it hardly seems to matter what you believe about climate variability – the fact is that it is happening, who is to blame can be seen as irrelevant in the short term.  We haven’t had the genuine debate about climate policy.

But we had better learn to adapt.

The problem with global warming isn’t the warming; it’s the consequences of warming.........

Boeing focuses on environmental strategies

ENVIRONMENTAL strategies should be good business and can motivate staff, according to Boeing’s environmental program head Mary Armstrong.

Boeing has targeted a 25 per cent reduction in its environmental footprint by 2012............

Nuclear waste in synthetic rock

AN Australian invention that allows nuclear waste to be stored within a synthetic rock-like substance could be on the verge of practical use after30 years development.

America’s Department of Energy plans to use the technology to treat and remove about 4400 cubic metres of high-level waste for the multibillion-dollar clean-up of a nuclear reprocessing facility in Idaho...........

Recycle? Freecycle? Ehhhhh?

At last some common sense!  Not too common that…..we have mountains of waste going to landfill plus solid waste days now some NSW councils are holding mass garage sales to encourage people to swap their unwanted goods rather than dump them in tips that are fast running out of space.

Faced with a total rubbish tax of more than $222 million a year, cash-strapped councils want people to barter and share..........

A Giant Plastic Island

The plastic vortex of the Northern Pacific is where much of the non-biodegradable rubbish from everyday life ends up.  This is a giant floating rubbish patch in the North Pacific twice the size of the US state of Texas and four times the size of Japan.

The patch includes non-biodegradable plastics, chemical sludge and other debris including fishing nets that has been trapped by the currents.

What worries researchers most is the impact the plastic dump is having on marine life.........

Harnessing the Power of the Sea

“Marine energy is emerging as a viable option as a renewable energy source and a real complement to wind, geothermal and hydro resources,” says NIWA oceanographer, Dr Craig Stevens.

“High speed flows in the coastal ocean are very complicated and not surprisingly carry vast amounts of energy. ” says Dr Stevens.........

p.s. Just a quck reminder - here is a link to book your place now and get moving straightaway to start planning for greater flexibility in your business and you will also save time and money

p.p.s. Most  of my readers tell me this newsletter is a great way of getting up to date information easily but if you are really snowed under by lots of emails from other sources you can chose to keep in touch by emailling jean@enviroaction.com.au and go onto the monthly list.